New Milford wrestlers aim for SWC title

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, February 2, 2005

If they want to repeat as South-West Conference champions, they know they'll have to beat league rivals Bethel and New Fairfield along the way.

The Green Wave took a major step toward defending their conference crown with a 54-17 victory over Bethel Wednesday night.

New Milford can put a headlock on the SWC crown if it can beat New Fairfield in its next meet this coming Wednesday.

"We've been working really hard the last couple of weeks. These two matches are going to determine the rest of our season," New Milford's Pete Stefanatos said.

"Every year, that's our goal - to win, not to come up short."

The SWC combines teams' regular-season performances with its points at the conference tournament in order to determine an overall champion. The team with the best record heading into the conference meet is in the best position to claim the conference crown.

The two teams grappling for that top position are New Milford and New Fairfield; the two teams will meet Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at New Milford.

"We're confident that we're going to be able to win," New Milford's Pat Knight said. "They look good, and it's going to be a tough match. We're going to have to wrestle our best."

New Fairfield edged New Milford on Saturday as part of a four-team non-conference meet. That one doesn't count toward the SWC standings. The next one does.

"Overall, we wrestled tough the last time," New Milford's Joe Hall said of the loss to New Fairfield. "We just have to do the same thing again."

The victory over Bethel Tuesday came in a clash between the last two SWC champions.

"Bethel has always been a problem for us in the past, so it was good to come out here and get a big win against Bethel," Knight said.

The Green Wave took a quick 12-0 lead on back-to-back pins by Knight at 171 pounds and Kyle Bradshaw at 189. Knight capitalized on an early takedown and scored a pin in 44 seconds.

Steve Bendrick followed with a win by decision at 215, and Tom Ferrell won the 275-pound match with a pin in 34 seconds. That gave the Wave a 21-0 lead heading into the lightweights. That was too big of a hole for Bethel to climb out of.

New Milford's Spiros Stefanatos notched an exciting pin in the 119-pound match. He trailed 4-0 to Bethel's Brendan Ivan before rallying to tie the match 4-4 heading into the third period. Stefanatos scored a two-point takedown with 1:27 remaining and pinned Ivan nine seconds later.

Nick Palermo scored Bethel's first points with an 18-2 technical fall victory at 125 pounds. That win narrowed New Milford's lead to 37-5.

Also for Bethel, Mike Kaptein (152) won by pin and Dylan Wolf (140) and Anthony Kosteck (160) both won by decision.

Wolf used a valiant comeback to win 8-4 over New Milford's Cody Griswold. Wolf fell behind 4-0 when Griswold scored a two-point reversal with eight seconds left in the second period. Wolf rallied in the third period, taking a 5-4 lead with 51 seconds remaining. He added three more back points in the waning seconds to seal the win.